Sarah Palin has an op-ed that is being reported as criticism of Trump’s Carrier deal. I’m not sure it’s fair to say Palin is criticizing the deal, as she continually says that the terms are not yet clear. But she does make a very good point: if the deal favors one company over others, that’s crony capitalism — and it’s not supposed to be what Republicans stand for:

I am ecstatic for Carrier employees! Their bosses just decided to keep shop onshore. What a relief for hundreds of workers. Merry Christmas Indiana!

We don’t yet know terms of the public/private deal that was cut to make the company stay, but let’s hope every business is equally incentivized to keep Americans working in America.

. . . .

When government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent. Meanwhile, the invisible hand that best orchestrates a free people’s free enterprise system gets amputated. Then, special interests creep in and manipulate markets. Republicans oppose this, remember? Instead, we support competition on a level playing field, remember? Because we know special interest crony capitalism is one big fail.

. . . .

But know that fundamentally, political intrusion using a stick or carrot to bribe or force one individual business to do what politicians insist, versus establishing policy incentivizing our ENTIRE ethical economic engine to roar back to life, isn’t the answer.

I have had my doubts about Sarah Palin recently. But this is a courageous thing for her to say. She’s being considered for a position in the Trump administration, allegedly. For her to speak on behalf of conservative, free-market principles, especially at a time when it appears Donald Trump may be violating them, speaks well of her.

Good for Sarah Palin.

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